NT2Lex: A CEFR-Graded Lexical Resource for Dutch as a Foreign Language Linked to Open Dutch WordNet

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce NT2Lex, a novel lexical resource for Dutch as a foreign language (NT2) which includes frequency distributions of 17,743 words and expressions attested in expert-written textbook texts and readers graded along the scale of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). In essence, the lexicon informs us about what kind of vocabulary should be understood when reading Dutch as a non-native reader at a particular proficiency level.The main novelty of the resource with respect to the previously developed CEFR-graded lexicons concerns the introduction of corpusbased evidence for L2 word sense complexity through the linkage to Open Dutch WordNet (Postma et al., 2016). The resource thus contains, on top of the lemmatised and part-ofspeech tagged lexical entries, a total of 11,999 unique word senses and 8,934 distinct synsets.

Lexical Complexity Prediction: An Overview

“…Alhawiti [7] states that TS can be beneficial to language learners and therefore, an ITS or CALL application that incorporated TS would likewise be beneficial. This is since TS has been found to increase the literacy [125] as well as advance the vocabulary development of L2 learners [133,162].…”

“…Therefore, an ITS or CALL application that incorporated TS would likewise be beneficial. For instance, TS is believed to significantly increase the literacy [101] as well as advance the vocabulary development of L2 learners [108,132].…”

Crowdsourcing Relative Rankings of Multi-Word Expressions: Experts versus Non-Experts

“…3 The motivation behind this approach is that textbooks generally target a specific proficiency group of language learners and have been carefully wri en with the needs of second language learners in mind. The project so far has resulted in the creation of six corpus-based language lists in six languages: FLELex for French (Franc ¸ois et al, 2014), SVALex for Swedish (Franc ¸ois et al, 2016), EFLLex for English (Dürlich and Franc ¸ois, 2018), NT2Lex for Dutch (Tack et al, 2018) and ELELex for Spanish (Franc ¸ois and De Cock, 2018). Each of these word lists not only contains the overall frequency but also the distribution of frequencies over the di erent CEFR levels.…”

Interactive Word Sense Disambiguation in Foreign Language Learning

“…empleo: 'usage' / 'job') have shown to be more challenging to process and learn (Bensoussan and Laufer, 1984;Degani and Tokowicz, 2010). Nevertheless, the distinction of word senses has often been overlooked in the design of vocabulary learning curricula and graded word lists (Tack et al, 2018). Moreover, when foreign language teachers or textbook designers need a set of usage examples for each sense of an ambiguous word, they often have to manually gather or invent these example sentences.…”

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Word sense awareness" is a feature which is not yet implemented in most corpus query tools, Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (ICALL) environments or computer-readable didactic resources such as graded word lists (Alfter and Graën, 2019;Pilán et al, 2016;Tack et al, 2018). The present paper aims to contribute to filling this lacuna by presenting a word sense disambiguation (WSD) method for ICALL purposes.

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